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Two workers were killed and 20 others, including first responders, were injured when a chemical reaction went awry at a silver recovery facility in West Virginia.

The reaction and leak happened Wednesday at the Catalyst Refiners plant near Institute, about 12 miles northwest of Charleston, prompting a shelter-in-place order from local authorities, the Kanawha County Commission Emergency Management announced on social media.

The Associated Press and other news sites that crews were cleaning equipment in the plant when the chemical reaction produced toxic hydrogen sulfide and nitric acid, a county official said. Seven ambulance workers arriving at the scene were stricken by the fumes and were taken to hospitals.

An extensive decontamination operation was underway Wednesday, after operations at the silver facility were shut down, AP reported.

Catalyst Refiners, owned by Ames Goldsmith Corp., removes silver left over from chemical processes. Nitric acid is used to dissolve materials, such as X-ray films, electronics and photographic materials, leaving silver nitrate that can be processed into pure silver, the Charleston Gazette-Mail .

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has begun an investigation into the incident, news sites reported.

The facility is in the heart of Kanawha Valley, also known as “Chemical Valley” due to the number of chemical plants in the area—several of which have closed in recent decades, the AP and the Gazette-Mail noted.

An Ames Goldsmith plant in Glens Falls, New York, was the site of an explosion in 2011. No injuries resulted from that incident, according to news reports at the time.

Topics Virginia